Brookdale Newsroom

Students Strut Runway to Honor 50 Years of Brookdale

To commemorate Brookdale’s 50th anniversary, members of the Brookdale Fashion Club joined with local designers and fashion experts to host the 2017 Brookdale Fashion Show on March 7 in the Student Life Center.

Brookdale fashion students took to the runway to showcase their Spring ’17 collections before a packed house of classmates, mentors and local fashion fans.

To produce a memorable show worthy of the college’s 50th anniversary, Fashion Club members reached out to former Brookdale fashion graduate Toccara Scott, who currently works as fashion show coordinator for Run This Way, a production company based in New Jersey that specializes in organizing fashion shows and other fashion related events.

Dozens of people surrounded both sides of the runway as students and local models showed off their designer clothing by Elie Wright, Die Young, JK Bootiq, Old Ancient and Ivy Rose. From dresses to streetwear, students wowed the audience with their take on the latest trends for the upcoming year.

“We had our students come up with designs that take the past 50 years in fashion and fuse them with fashion trends of today,” said Fashion Club president Gia Fontana.

Each collection was met with an enthusiastic applause and attendees expressed overall praise for the fashion show. Some attendees were even seen diligently browsing the clothing racks set up for any potential customers after the event.

Annmarie Hughes, faculty advisor to the Brookdale’s Fashion Club and instructor of fashion merchandising and marketing, was especially proud of her students’ final designs.

“The students have been working tirelessly on this show to make sure it’s a success, and they clearly succeeded,” she said. “An event like this gives the students an opportunity to showcase their talents, gain valuable experience and improve their resumes and job applications. It’s also a lot of fun.”

In addition to the show, attendees were able to purchase some delicious, gold encrusted cupcakes made by Fontana’s non-profit organization “Project Cupcake.”